While some may dismiss these ideals as the folly
of youth, millennials are becoming too numerous
to ignore. In the U.S., millennials will become the
largest generation in the workforce by the end of
the year. Yet, 53 percent of the country’s hiring
managers say it’s difficult to find and retain these
young professionals. And as the global project talent market tightens, this shortage may begin to hurt
business results.

According to Arras People’s 2015 global Project
Management Benchmark Report, 81 percent of
project professionals say they would need to recruit
more team members this year to meet increased
demand. But one in five say they failed to fill all their
open roles last year, suggesting supply is not keeping up with demand.

“It will likely be a challenge that impacts both
the cost and risk of near-term projects,” says John
Thorpe, managing director of Arras People, a project management recruitment and career consulting
company in London, England. “As demand for
project managers increases, the cost of labor will go
up. And if organizations can’t fill these roles, their
ability to deliver projects successfully will go down.

“As demand for project managersincreases, the cost of labor will goup. And if organizations can’t fillthese roles, their ability to deliverprojects successfully will go down.”

—John Thorpe, Arras People, London, England

That combination of skill shortage and premium
pricing will be a double whammy.”

NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY

To mitigate this risk, many organizations are ramping
up recruiting and training efforts, bringing in young
college grads and providing them with a combination
of training, coaching and on-the-job experience. The
first challenge is just getting them in the door, says
Chris Jones, director of learning and development for
BAM Construct UK, a construction, building design,
facilities management and property development
company in Hemel Hempstead, England.

“The first step is to attract them to constructionand educate them about the career opportuni-ties that are available,” he says. Fortunately, oncethey see the work they could be doing, “they areattracted to construction, and many aspire tobecome project managers.”BAM helps new recruits understand their careeropportunities by outlining a carefully designeddevelopment path that will move them towardproject leadership. The company uses classroomtraining and on-the-job experience to build youngteam members’ skills and help them develop exper-tise over a broad range of areas like engineering,planning and finance. This allows BAM to build adeep and diverse project management bench, Mr.

Jones says.

The company’s development program for project
managers has been so successful that other companies often try to poach its best people. “But we can’t
just throw up our hands and give up,” Mr. Jones says.